Every one, however, gives something, generally a handful of dough or
some corn. In houses where there is a new bride or whence a bride
has gone, or where a son has been born, it is usual to give a rupee
and a quarter, or some cloth. Sometimes the bearers of the snake
also sing:
"Give the snake a piece of cloth, and he will send a lively bride!"
When every house has been thus visited, the dough snake is buried
and a small grave is erected over it. Thither during the nine days
of September the women come to worship. They bring a basin of curds,
a small portion of which they offer at the snake's grave, kneeling
on the ground and touching the earth with their foreheads. Then they
go home and divide the rest of the curds among the children. Here
the dough snake is clearly a substitute for a real snake. Indeed, in
districts where snakes abound the worship is offered, not at the
grave of the dough snake, but in the jungles where snakes are known
to be. Besides this yearly worship, performed by all the people, the
members of the Snake tribe worship in the same way every morning
after a new moon.
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